STEPHEN H. PROVOST
Novelist and author of historical nonfiction. Editor, columnist, copywriter, reporter and photographer.
NEW from Dragon Crown Books!
Christmas Nightmare’s EVE
Fresno GRowing up: Deluxe edition
Christmas Nightmare’s Eve - December 2023
Continuing in the tradition of the critically lauded Nightmare's Eve, Stephen H. Provost and Sharon Marie Provost present a collection of chilling and thought-provoking stories perfect for fans of The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. What happens to bad little boys at Christmastime? Do ghosts go home for the holidays? What happens when one of Santa's elves comes back from Costa Rica with an infection caused by mysterious bite? How far will a desperate author go to meet a Christmas deadline? Those are just some of the questions posed in this new volume of twists and terror—perfect for the long and moonless nights of winter, when candlelight fails and fitful dreams turn frightful.
Fresno Growing Up: Deluxe Edition - January 2024
Stephen H. Provost presents this new expanded version of his 2015 release, Fresno Growing Up, packed with new and updated information, a new format and more than 80 new images. Fresno Growing Up is the first book to tell the story of Fresno during those memorable days when the city was growing up—and so were we. From Al Radka to Christmas Tree Lane, from Harpain's Dairy to Fresno State, the author surveys the businesses, malls, restaurants, movie houses, personalities, athletes, musicians, and more that made Fresno fun. For the first time, Fresno Growing Up will be available in eBook and full-color keepsake hardback editions!
Featured NONfiction
HIGHWAYS OF THE WEST
The author’s latest series focuses on historic highways in the West. The first two volumes spotlight the Lincoln Highway in Nevada and California.
AMERICA’S LONELIEST ROAD
U.S. Highway 50 in Nevada has been called America's loneliest road. There are other lonesome stretches of highway, but the band of asphalt from the Utah state line to Lake Tahoe is more than worthy of the title. For vast distances, the old Lincoln Highway extends toward the horizon in an unbroken line, attended only by sagebrush, all-but-deserted mining towns, and empty spaces. You'll visit places like the McGill Drug Store, the International Hotel in Austin, and the Hotel Nevada in Ely. You'll rediscover abandoned pavement, and you'll explore ghost towns like Hamilton and Lane City as you trace this desolate road and its evolution from the late 19th century to today. Now available in keepsake color and eBook editions.
SIERRA HIGHWAY
Discover the majesty and history of the Three Flags Highway and El Camino Sierra from the timber country near the Oregon border south through Reno, Carson City, and Nevada’s oldest town. Climb toward the crest of the range and explore haunting Mono and breathtaking Mammoth Lakes, then descend to the edge of the Mojave Desert and witness a wholly different kind of beauty. Revisit old 395 where it once continued down all the way to San Diego, the only highway to share part of its length with both the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. Travelers by the millions have followed this path before you, and their stories echo through more than 350 pages in this historical travelogue. Illustrated by more than 550 images, Sierra Highway is available in paperback, eBook, and keepsake color editions.
VICTORY ROAD
Few people remember the Victory Highway, which lives today in the historical shadow of the far more famous Lincoln Highway. Yet it was this road that traced old California Emigrant Trail traveled by the Donner Party, Mark Twain, and countless others. And it was this road that became the primary east-west thoroughfare through Nevada, paving the way for U.S. 40 and, later, Interstate 80. Packed with more than 350 historical and contemporary images, Victory Road is the third installment in Stephen H. Provost's series of historical travelogues touring the Highways of the West. From the Bonneville Salt Flats to the Donner Pass and beyond, visit Elko and Reno; Wells, Wendover and Winnemucca as you journey back in time across Nevada and witness the evolution of this amazing highway.
The LINCOLN HIGHWAY IN CALIFORNIA
The Lincoln Highway in California wasn't just one road. It crossed the Sierra in two branches. And its earliest alignment, in 1913, took it south from Sacramento through Stockton to Hayward via the Altamont Pass. But that changed when the Yolo Causeway and Carquinez Bridge were built. Produced in conjunction with the Lincoln Highway Association of California, this volume will take you on a historical travelogue that features the beauty of Lake Tahoe, Donner Pass, Truckee, and Auburn; the history of places like Dutch Flat and California's capital; and the farms and fields of the Sacramento Valley on the way to San Francisco and the highway's Western Terminus.
Coming Soon
U.S. 95, Nevada’s north-south main street.
Follow in the footsteps of the celebrated American storyteller in Nevada, visiting the places he lived, visited, worked, and wrote about. Read about his adventures traveling the Wild West, prospecting for gold, and digging up (or making up) stories for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City. Illustrated with numerous vintage and modern photos and illustrations, these are the remarkable stories that transformed Samuel Clemens into Mark Twain and a territory into a state.
Available in paperback or keepsake hardcover edition from Amazon.
The author has driven roads across the country to produce five volumes essential to any highway lover’s library.
Highway 99
Before it was a modern freeway, California’s State Highway 99 was “the main street of California,” a simple two-lane road that passed through the downtowns of every city between the Mexican border and the Oregon state line. Highway 99 documents the birth, growth, and transformation of the highway; the gas stations, motels, restaurants, and attractions that flourished and declined by the roadside; and the communities, personalities, and historical events that made their mark on the highway. Turn back the clock to those days when a narrow ribbon of asphalt tied the state’s communities together, with classic roadside attractions and plenty of fun along the way.
Highway 101
From Disneyland to the historic Madonna Inn to the Avenue of the Giants, Highway 101 catalogs the great landmarks along the road, plus the fascinating personalities, from Dorothea Lange to Jelly Roll Morton to Cecil B. DeMille, whose lives intersected with the history of the route. A colorful history of Americana, commerce, travel, and fun, Highway 101 captures the magic of the open road.
Yesterday’s Highways
Relive the history of the American highway from its origins in the era of the covered wagon through the age of the interstate. Illustrated with more than 400 images from roads across the country, Yesterday’s Highways takes you back to the golden age of the open road, when Model T’s chugged down the Lincoln Highway and Corvette convertibles roamed Route 66.
AMERICA’S FIRST HIGHWAYS
Before Route 66 and Highway 99 anchored the first federal highway system, privately funded auto trails like the Lincoln Highway, the Dixie Highway and the Jefferson Highway gave Americans a way to get from coast to coast or from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. Revisit this colorful era of half-paved roads, auto camps and pathfinder tours in America’s First Highways.
HIGHWAYS OF THE SOUTH
Our highways are a microcosm of American life itself, nowhere more so than in the South. You’ll find a host of roadside traditions that started out in the South and spread nationwide, from Chick-fil-A to Cracker Barrel, from KFC to Krispy Kreme. The South has given us fried chicken and barbecue, NASCAR and Mayberry. To travel the Highways of the South is to travel through a time capsule, past ’30s diners, motels from the ’40s, drive-ins from the ’50s, and the billboards of today.
“Profusely illustrated throughout, Highway 99 is unreservedly recommended as an essential and core addition to every community and academic library’s California History collections and would serve as an excellent template for similar histories of other iconic American roads.”
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“For the first time, we have a full portrait of Highway 99. Provost has crafted a lucid account, lively on every page. ”
She was the first player to sign a contract in the first women’s professional basketball league, paving the way for the WNBA. She set records for the most points in a season, in a game, and in a playoff game that still stand four decades later.
Yet few people know the story of Molly Bolin. Her shooting stroke evoked comparisons to Stephen Curry and earned her the nickname “Machine Gun Molly.”
She averaged 50 points a game in high school, playing six-on-six basketball. She appeared in a movie with Pete Maravich and in a poster that made her the sports world’s answer to Farrah Fawcett. But perhaps most impressively, she overcame the odds time and again through hard work and dedication.
This is the story of a young girl from a small town in Iowa who had a dream, pursued it and made it come true. This is the legend of Molly Bolin.
I was privileged to work with Molly in bringing her story to life in this, her authorized biography.
hair metal’s heyday
Pop metal burst onto the scene in 1980s along with Reaganomics, video games, and Apple Computers. You either loved it or you hated it, but it was impossible to avoid. Bands like Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, and Poison were all over MTV, vying with Madonna and Michael Jackson for musical supremacy. And then, in a flash, it was gone: as suddenly obsolete in 1992 as disco was in 1980. But there’s a lot more to this music than meets the ear. It didn’t appear out of nowhere, and it didn’t vanish, either.
Pop Goes the Metal traces the musical and cultural phenomenon that came to be known, both derisively and affectionately, as “hair metal.” Musically, it was rooted in the British Invasion, power pop, and early heavy metal. Visually, it began with Bowie and Sweet and T. Rex, and kept right on going through Kiss and Alice Cooper to Poison and Twisted Sister.
Travel to L.A.’s Sunset Strip scene that gave birth to Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Guns N’ Roses, and halfway around the world to explore the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Revisit the early years of MTV, the era of heavy metal magazines, the
“Satanic Panic,” and the PMRC; read about overdoses, car crashes, unscrupulous managers, and concert chaos.
Growing up in the suburbs meant playing air guitar to vinyl and cassettes, or waiting for the DJ to play your favorite songs on album rock radio — which never happened often enough.
Pop Goes the Metal captures an era and a musical movement indelibly impressed, for better or worse, in the souls and memories of millions. It served as the soundtrack to our youth and it’s still playing in our heads. So Cum on Feel the Noize as you relive the memories of this gone-but-not-forgotten time.
You’ll never read about music the same way again.
Featured Fiction
ACADEMY OF THE LOST LABYRINTH
“The plot is quick, easy to follow, and flows at a breakneck pace, making the novel incredibly fun to read. It features everything a fantasy fan would love.”
The earth lies shrouded in endless night.
A girl and a boy must work together to save the world. That’s a tall task for anyone, but it’s even harder than it seems: They live thousands of miles and a hundred years apart.
Two orphans caught in a magical maze must find their way home, or all is lost. The labyrinth they’ve wandered into is filled with wonders and mortal dangers.
But they have one hope: seven magical artifacts called the Talismans of Time. And they have a secret ally: the headmistress of an Academy for magically gifted students. Can she help bring these two lost orphans together and repair a fateful flaw in history? If they can’t accomplish their mission, the Academy will never even exist in the first place.
Will they succeed? Time will tell. And it’s running out.
Fans of Academy novels, Harry Potter, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Percy Jackson will love this fanciful and thrilling adventure through the Lost Labyrinth.
ERRORS + Feedback
If you see a typo or other error in one of my books, you can alert me via the CONTACT page on this site. Specify the typo and location (page number), and I’ll correct it for the next edition. You can also contact me if you’re interested in serving as a beta reader.